Induction Motor Cogging and Crawling

Induction motors that cog or crawl will not accelerate to full speed. Cogging motors do not
accelerate at all, and crawling induction motors stop accelerating at part speed. Acceleration can
also be limited by the torque output of the motor relative to the load torque at that speed.

Cogging

Induction motors have a series of slots in the stator and in

the rotor. These slots should not be equal in number
because if they are, there is a good chance that the motor
will not start at all due to a characteristic known as
cogging. The slots will align like a stepper motor.
For this reason, there are an unequal number of slots in the
rotor and in the stator, but there can still be situations
where the slot frequencies coincide with harmonic
frequencies and this can cause torque modulations. The
slots are skewed to keep an overlap on all slots to reduce
this problem.

Crawling

Another characteristic of induction motors, is crawling. There are harmonic fluxes developed in the
gap due to the magnetics of the motor. These harmonics create additional torque fields. A common
problem is with the seventh harmonic where the seventh harmonic creates a forward rotating
torque field at one seventh of the synchronous speed. There will be a maximum torque just below
1/7 Ns and if this is high enough, the net torque can be higher than the torque due to the line
frequency where at 1/7 Ns, the slip is high. This can cause the motor to crawl at just below 1/7
synchronous speed.
There is another crawl speed at 1/13 Ns.

Crawling with Soft Starters

When a motor is started with a soft starter, the gap harmonics are increased by the harmonic
currents produced by the phase controlled SCRs of the soft starter.
A motor that has a tendency (small) to crawl when operated with a clean supply, will have a much
greater tendency to crawl when controlled by SCRs and a chopped waveform.
The subject of harmonic torques and harmonic fluxes can get very complex when you try to analyse
the effects of all the electrical harmonics, plus the magnetic harmonics plus the slot noise.
The seventh harmonic is the best known and documented crawl speed, but others can exist due to
the total interaction of all harmonic sources.
The two critical speeds are 1/13 Ns and 1/7 Ns. If the motor crawls just below either of these
speed, there is a definite interaction between the motor and the harmonics produced by the soft
starter. At other odd order non triplen harmonic speeds, there can also be more complex
interactions.
The design of the motor, no of slots in rotor and no of slots in stator, and the skew of the slots are all
selected to minimise these problems, but all design is a compromise.

A motor crawling at say 1/7 Ns will produce maximum torque at a low slip (relative to 1/7 Ns) in
the same way that the maximum torque is produced at just below Ns. There will therefore be a
"slip" frequency at the maximum torque. This will cause a modulation in the current flow in the
motor and this in turn can modulate the commutation angle of the SCRs.
Where the SCRs are triggered relative to the voltage wave form, there will be a modulation of the
conduction angle of the SCRs as observed. This will tend to accentuate the crawl torque by
effectively amplitude modulating the line frequency applied to the motor. Where the SCRs are
triggered relative to the current waveform, the phase modulation will not affect the conduction
angle of the SCRs and the effect will not affect the crawl torque.

Where the phase modulation of the commutation angle causes an amplitude modulation of the
motor current, and there is a current control loop, it is possible that the response time of the loop
can further amplify the modulation.
The greater the level of modulation, the lower the probability that the motor will accelerate through
the crawl speed.
In the same way that the torque just below crawl speed is a maximum, the torque just above crawl
speed is a minimum. There must be sufficient synchronous torque at the minimum to accelerate the
load to full speed.

The major influence of the supply on this scenario, is that an increased supply impedance will result
in increased conduction angles and reduced harmonics which will reduce the crawl torque. A
reduced supply impedance will cause a reduced conduction angle for the same current and this will
increase the harmonic content and result in an increased crawl torque.

If you suspect that you may have a crawling situation, characterised by the motor not accelerating
and strong vibrations, the best indication is to determine the actual shaft speed where the motor
acceleration stops. If this is at just below 1/13 Ns (115RPM @ 50Hz or 138RPM @ 60Hz) or 1/7 Ns
(214RPM @ 50Hz or 257RPM @ 60Hz) then I would suggest that this is a very likely scenario.